Inside Our Schools: Teachers on the Failure and Future of Education Reform - Softcover

In this powerful collection of personal accounts, successful and respected teachers from across the country reveal how recent education policies have played out in their schools and classrooms in negative and counterproductive ways, and offer teacher-led alternatives for providing equitable, engaging, and empowering education. Framed by critical analyses of the major trends and policies enacted over the past fifteen years, Inside Our Schools adds to the understanding of unintended consequences of policy on classroom practice as well as the limits of current policies-which are uninformed by the actual conditions that teachers face-to improve teaching and learning. It also reveals the honest struggles of educators seeking to do the right thing for students in the face of enormous obstacles and underscores the need to inject teacher voices and perspectives in education policy making going forward. Inside Our Schools provides valuable insights for all those who worry and wonder about the future of education reform: scholars and researchers who are contributing to the preparation of the next generation of public educators; policy makers who need a broader context of the impact of their policy decisions; parents who are trying to understand what is best for their children; and current educators who want to hear, learn, and reflect on the perspectives of peers from across the country.

In this moving volume, successful and respected teachers from across the country reveal how recent top-down education policies have played out in their schools and classrooms in negative and counterproductive ways, and offer teacher-led alternatives for providing equitable, engaging, and empowering education.
 
Framed by critical analyses of the major trends and policies enacted over the past fifteen years, Inside Our Schools adds to the understanding of unintended consequences of policy on classroom practice as well as the limits of current policies—uninformed by the actual conditions that teachers face—to improve teaching and learning. It also reveals the honest struggles of educators seeking to do the right thing for students in the face of enormous obstacles, underscoring the need to inject teacher voices and perspectives in education policy making going forward.
 
“In this powerful collection, Brett Gardiner Murphy has gathered together an impressive group of teachers to reflect on the day-to-day challenges and joys of teaching within the current difficult sociopolitical context. Inside Our Schools provides sobering reflections of how our public schools have lost their way, and what needs to be done to restore hope and confidence in them. The book is a poignant reminder of the crucial role of public education in a democratic society.”
—Sonia Nieto, professor emerita, language, literacy, and culture, College of Education, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
 
“What a relief—and how sadly unusual it is—to hear about education and reform from the people actually doing the educating. This book provides twenty-five sobering and enlightening accounts of teaching in our time, organized under five masterfully summarized themes. A valuable book for policy makers, practitioners, and parents.”
—Mike Rose, author of Possible Lives: The Promise of Public Education in America
 
Brett Gardiner Murphy is the director of strategic projects at the Posse Foundation and a former New York City public school history teacher.